The Ultimate Fighter 5 contestant Nate Diaz faces off in a rematch against Gray Maynard who he defeated by guillotine choke during the TUF season. He then went on to capture the TUF 5 lightweight contract over Manvel Gamburyan. Since the season has ended Gray Maynard is 6-0 (1 NC) in the UFC and Nate Diaz has compiled a record of 6-2 UFC.

The Ultimate Fighter 5 contestant Nate Diaz faces off in a rematch against Gray Maynard who he defeated by guillotine choke during the TUF season. He then went on to capture the TUF 5 lightweight contract over Manvel Gamburyan. Since the season has ended Gray Maynard is 6-0 (1 NC) in the UFC and Nate Diaz has compiled a record of 6-2 UFC.

Picks?

The only fight I'm interested in is the Diaz/Maynard fight. Nothing against the other fights, they will all probably be great, but this one actually has title implications. If Maynard wins, he may be next in line or 1 fight away from a shot at BJ Penn. Same with Nick Diaz. The strength of a win against Maynard may set up a fight with, say Frankie Edger for a #1 contender's match. Since Maynard already beat Edger, I don't see that fight happening and they may just have throw Maynard in with BJ or maybe the winner of Kenflo/Gomi (if that happens) before going against BJ. This could set up a Gomi/Penn 2 rematch if Gomi gets past Kenflo and Maynard. Again, mostly speculation but I could see it going down like that.

I see this fight as being similar to his other fights where Diaz uses his "punches in bunches" style to frustrate Maynard into a takedown that will either get him submitted almost instantly or eventually. I don't see Maynard having the pace of Clay Guida (that fight, by the way could have gone either way but, as I mentioned in a previous posts, takedowns look better in the judges eyes) or the submission savvy of Joe Stevenson to stifle Nate. I think he goes for one takedown too many and gets caught in a Guillotine again.

CP: Did you feel the entrance at UFC 100? And right after you thought of it, did you immediately think that you needed Seth Petruzelli in the role of the dog, to really sell it?

TL: Well, the original thought was, it all begins with the song. You hear the song before you see the fighter. The opening to ‘Who Let the Dogs Out’ seemed perfect since I was facing “The Doberman,” C.B. Dollaway. It would be quite ironic. But you can’t just stop at that. It would have been funny, maybe, but once you add in the element of, there’s a man, a grown man, acting like a dog and, wait a minute, he’s got a bone in his mouth, he drops it out of his mouth, then picks it up off the dirty Vegas floor and puts it right back in his mouth. That changes things. It ups the ante and makes things a bit more serious, and more spectacular at the same time.

...

CP: What are you weighing right now?

TL: Right now? 243.

CP: Wow. I worry about your ability to get to 185 by this weekend.

TL: It’s a tough cut. I won’t lie to you. But I’ve signed the contract, so I’ll make it happen.

...

CP: You seem to spend a lot of time on the internet, posting on the UG, stuff like that.

TL: To tell you the truth, I spend more time on Red Tube. That’s probably the number one site I spend time on.

...

CP: Do you spend a lot of time reading about MMA on the internet?

TL: Yeah, I go to all the news sites. I don’t know if you want to plug competitors, but I’m on them all, from Sherdog to Nightmare of Battle, which is just this one guy in Japan. I’m honestly more of a fan than I am a skilled fighter. If I couldn’t fight, I’d still be a fan. It just so happens I have the opportunity to do it and, somehow, through matchmaking, they’ve been able to find people less talented than me, which is mind-bottling. But I’m on pretty much all the sites, big or small. The one I visit the most is probably MatBattle.com, though.